Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction | Non-fiction: Adventure with a Purpose

  • Home
  • Mike Scott Thrillers
    • Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal
    • Water Crisis: Day Zero
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • The 3rd Key: Sharks in the Water
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Heart of the Maya: Murder for the Gods
    • Wreck of the Huron: Cuban Secrets
    • Guardians’ Keep: Mystery below the Adriatic
    • Flooding Hollywood: Fanatics at the Dam
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
  • Withrow Key
    • Lyin’ Fish
    • Tales from Withrow Key
  • Thriller Audiobooks
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • Lyin’ Fish
  • Agent AJ West
  • About the Author
    • Scuba diving thrillers!
    • Six Questions with Eric Douglas
    • Publicity and Interviews
  • Nonfiction
    • For Cheap Lobster
    • Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery
    • Oral History
      • Batter Up!
      • Memories of the Valley
      • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
      • Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories
    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
    • Keep on, Keepin’ On: A Breast Cancer Story
    • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
    • Russia: The New Age
    • Scuba Diving Safety
  • Free Short Fiction
  • Collections
    • Mike Scott Box Set 3 (Books 7-10)
    • Mike Scott Box-Set 4-6
    • Mike Scott Box-Set 1-3
    • Tales from Withrow Key
    • Sea Turtle Rescue and Other Stories
    • River Town
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Adventure / Leo Morales—not saying “I can’t”

Leo Morales—not saying “I can’t”

December 17, 2013 By Eric Douglas

2013-12-15 09.31.26

Editors Note: Check out the book Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story. 

Let me say first that I had absolutely nothing to do with Leo Morales‘ world record setting dive. I’m just really impressed by it and with him.

Leo lost most of his right leg to cancer. But he hasn’t lost a step. Last weekend he completed his second world record dive for a person with a disability. He stayed underwater for 8:16 hours and traveled 15.6 kilometers in the marine park in Cozumel, Mexico making it the longest in terms of both time and distance. A year ago, he made a decompression dive to 410 feet to set his first world record dive, the deepest for a person with a disability.

Watch a trailer of the documentary about his world record deep dive.

While his records may have the phrase “with a disability” attached to them, that certainly doesn’t lessen the accomplishments. Obviously, if anything it adds to them. The mental focus necessary to accomplish something like that is phenomenal. He had to maintain his Nautilus rebreather, continually swim, stay warm and alert and concentrate on what he was doing for more than eight hours.

Most divers will never attempt anything like Leo’s dives and that’s fine. The lesson I take from watching Leo, and enjoying his warm, inviting and positive outlook is nothing is impossible. You can’t let anything stand in your way. In interviews, he has described the days after the cancer and the surgery to remove his leg—the surgery saved his life, but he only had an estimated 20 percent chance of surviving—as the darkest days of his life, and a time in which he considered taking his own life. He had given up. With the support of his friends, family and God, he returned to diving and now works as an advocate for the disabled in his native Mexico. His dives aren’t stunts; they are designed to inspire everyone and also to show people with disabilities that they can do anything they set their minds to.

2013-12-14 20.52.00Most of us will never have to face anything nearly as terrible as a surgery to save your life that will probably kill you in the process. Most of us will never have to lose a large portion of our bodies to disease. Yet, too many of us use the words “I can’t” on a too-regular basis.

My most recent work with Diveheart (here, here and here ) and meeting Leo has definitely inspired me. While both have a diving connection, the inspiration isn’t about diving at all. It is about life. From now on, every time I say “I can’t”, I’m going to ask myself why. Would Leo say I can’t? And then I will get up and do it, regardless of what anyone else says.

What are you doing?

Visit Leo’s website to find out more. It is in Spanish, but my browser did a fair job of translating it..

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Filed Under: Adventure, Diving

Get a free, exclusive short story!

When you sign up, you can download a free Mike Scott short story collection. Theses three stories are only available to members of the mailing list. Don’t worry, we won’t spam you or sell your email address. We hate that, too.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.

How I got into diving!

https://youtu.be/gKhw-4tORAM

Real Thugs: A Cult of Murder — Small groups of travelers have disappeared all over the mid-Atlantic without a trace. When bodies turn up with what appear to be ritual markings, FBI Agent AJ West is on the hunt for what might be a serial killer. Or something even more sinister. It’s a race against […]

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

View Book

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Going to the circus! February 20, 2023
  • Cayman Cowboys is now an Audiobook! November 24, 2020
  • Halloween 2020 – as if reality wasn’t scary enough October 30, 2020
  • Real Trick and What Noise? October 30, 2020
  • Local Diving — Summersville Lake September 21, 2020

Blog posts, by category

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 ·

 

Loading Comments...